Celine Homme 'Portrait of A Musician' 2023 Ad Campaign Review

Review of Celine Homme ‘Portrait of A Musician’ 2023 Ad Campaign by Creative Director & Photographer Hedi Slimane with model Julian Casablancas

Julian Casablancas is the latest cultural icon to be documented as part of Hedi Slimane’s “Portrait of a Musician” series for Celine Homme.

The creative director and photographer captures the rock frontman in the rooms, hallways, rooftop, and pool deck of Sunset Boulevard’s famous Chateau Marmont. While the hotel and haunt of artistes has been famously described as “populated by people either on their way up or on their way down,” Casablancas’ sticking power and many returns to the spotlight across his career as leader of The Strokes and The Voidz means he perennially evades both these categories. He also embodies the mid-2000s indie rock cultural boom and bust that Slimane has been investigating in his recent design work, and its tentatively ongoing revival.

Slimane deploys his familiar moody black-and-white photographic approach to capturing the star, though without the sensuality and yearning that is often subtly present in his images, instead seeing in this figure a straightforward embodiment of California cool as he poses poolside or surrounded by dense tropical foliage in an image that is rife with textural depth.

Bringing another impressively influential music figure into Celine’s photographic fold, Hedi Slimane continues to build a consistent and consistently cool visual empire for his brand.